Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts Earns Recognition
for Preserving the Future of Hospitality in

Under-Resourced Countries

(Singapore) --- April 1999 - Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts
continues to earn great praise for the company's contributions to
the education and training of youth and for their commitment to preserving
the future of hospitality in several under-resourced countries.

Due to her role in the development and implementation of Pan Pacific's
successful Youth Career Development Program, Corporate Director of
Education Lyndall de Marco has been asked to join the Travel & Tourism
business and industry delegation to the United Nations Commission on
Sustainable Development (UNCSD) in New York during the April 19-21 discussion
of the issues surrounding the travel and tourism industry. Coordinated
by the International Hotel & Restaurant Association (IH&RA) and
the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), this year will mark
the first dialog on travel and tourism since the inception of UNCSD seven
years ago.

Lyndall is one of only 25 participating industry leaders from around
the world and Pan Pacific's Youth Career Development Program will be featured
as an example of a practical industry initiative during these discussions.

Background:

Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts' Youth
Career Development Program

In cooperation with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Pan Pacific
launched the Youth Career Development Program (YCDP) in 1995 in Thailand
and has since expanded the program to Pan Pacific hotels in Bangladesh,
Manila, and Jakarta.

The YCDP is designed to provide innovative educational and vocational
training to disadvantaged youth throughout the globe who may otherwise
be engulfed in crime, prostitution, drugs, exploitation, abuse, and
deprivation.

Dr. Kitiya Phornsadja, the UNICEF Project Officer for Children in
Especially Difficult Circumstances, explains that the YCDP is not an end
in itself but instead a window of opportunity for children at risk
to explore their options. She comments, "Career development, a component
of integrated intervention programs to eliminate the deprivation
of development rights and exploitation of children, increases the
ability of youth to earn real income
and at the same time build their self esteem and self worth."

The inspiration for this innovative educational and vocational
training program came from Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts' President Ichigo
(Ishee) Umehara who states, "One of our corporate core values is to seek
enrichment of mankind and to make a difference to the lives of people.
To this end, a community program should always go hand in hand with the
establishment of each new Pan Pacific hotel."

The joint program with UNICEF started in Thailand four years ago with
10 young women and has since grown to impacting over 200 disadvantaged
youth.

The Pan Pacific

Bangkok

The Pan Pacific Bangkok's program is a five month
introduction to the hospitality industry as well as vocational training.
This opportunity provides job seeking skills, presents options to build
a productive career, and supplies the youth with viable alternatives
to the (previously) customary life of prostitution.

In Dhaka, Bangladesh, The Pan Pacific Sonargaon recently brought in
9 orphans (ages 8-12) from a local orphanage to

provide them with education, English language skills, and internship opportunities
until they finish school. When the hotel began this program 18 years
ago, four orphans were trained in the same fashion and now work at the
hotel as permanent employees.

In Manila, children from the outer islands of the Philippines were brought
into the city six months ago by UNICEF who provided housing and an allowance
whilst The Pan Pacific Manila provided education and hospitality skills.

A program will soon be launched at The Sari Pan Pacific Jakarta which
will provide orphan teenagers, left on their own at the age of 17, with
education and training in housekeeping skills to enable them to find future
jobs in private homes as houseboys, maids, and drivers.

Each of the programs at the various hotels are actually monitored (or
taught) by hotel executives who act as "teachers" in all career placement
and education activities.

Umehara states, "The purpose of these programs is not to provide money
nor charity, rather it is to provide an education to the underprivileged,
to equip them with skills which will allow them to get jobs, and
to make a better future for themselves and their families."
He continues, "I feel very proud that we are able to make this contribution
to the community and we will be looking at other opportunities in
other destinations where we have hotels to organize similar projects."

Spear-headed by the company's Corporate Director of Education Lyndall
de Marco, Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts is making a concerted effort to
impact the lives of disadvantaged youth throughout the world. Not
only is de Marco inspiring support of this program within the Pan
Pacific family of 21 hotels, she has also been active in securing
commitments in this admirable crusade from other hotels within Bangkok
and has been campaigning to enlist the support of the International
Hotel and Restaurant Association's 300,000+ members from 150 countries.

Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts currently encompasses 22 hotels (19 managed
properties, 2 marketing affiliates, and 1 hotel under development) in 12
countries in Asia, the Pacific and North America. You can access Pan Pacific
Hotels and Resorts on the Internet at www.panpac.com